Under the guidance of creator and performer Jim Henson, the Muppets reached international recognition and celebrity status.

The Muppets were created by puppeteer Jim Henson in the 1950s, beginning with Kermit the Frog, who would become Henson's signature character. Originally conceived as characters aimed at an adult audience,[9] Henson stated that the term "Muppet" had been created as an amalgamation of the words "marionette" and "puppet", but also claimed that it was actually a word he had coined.[10] In 1955, the Muppets were introduced on Sam and Friends, a television program that aired on WRC-TV in Washington D.C.[11] Conceptualized by Jim and eventual wife Jane Henson, the series was notable for the being the first form of puppet media to not include a physical proscenium arch within which the characters are presented. Instead, Henson utilized the natural four-sided frame of a television set that viewers would already be watching through as the program's theatre.[12]

During the 1960s, the characters—notably Kermit and Rowlf the Dog—appeared on skits in several late-night talk shows and advertising commercials, including The Ed Sullivan Show. Rowlf became the first Muppet with a regular spot on network television when he began appearing as Jimmy Dean's sidekick on The Jimmy Dean Show. In 1966, Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett began developing an educational television program targeted towards children and approached Henson to design several Muppet characters for the program. Produced by the Children's Television Workshop, the show debuted as Sesame Street in 1969. Henson and his creative team performed and created several characters for the show in the years that followed; Henson waived his performance fee in exchange for retaining ownership rights to the Muppet characters created for the program. Sesame Street received critical acclaim, and the Muppets' involvement in the series was touted to be a vital component of the show's blossoming popularity, providing an "effective and pleasurable viewing" method of presentation for the series' educational curriculum.[13][14]

By the late 1980s, Henson entered discussions with Michael Eisner and The Walt Disney Company, in which the latter would acquire Jim Henson Productions and in turn, own the Muppets. Disney was interested in purchasing the company for $150 million.[17] In addition to the company and Muppet characters, Eisner expressed a desire to include the Sesame Street characters as part of the acquisition. Henson, declined the proposal, however, consistently referring to such a motive as a "non-starter" for the deal.[18] As discussions between the two companies continued, Henson and Walt Disney Imagineering preemptively began developing Muppet-themed attractions for the Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World. However, negotiations broke off after Jim Henson's death in 1990. Nevertheless, Disney entered into a licensing agreement with Jim Henson Productions for permission to use the characters in the theme parks.[19] The following year, Muppet*Vision 3D debuted at Disney-MGM Studios, the only attraction to come to fruition from the original Imagineering plans. Still interested in the franchise, Disney co-produced the fourth and fifth Muppet films, The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island, with Jim Henson Productions in 1992 and 1996, respectively.[4] Following that, the characters starred in Muppets Tonight which ran on ABC from 1996 to 1998 and a sixth film, Muppets from Space, released by Columbia Pictures in 1999.

In 2000, Henson Productions was sold to EM.TV & Merchandising AG for $680 million.[20] Following the sale, EM.TV was plagued with financial problems and the Henson family purchased the company back in 2003, with the exception of the rights to the Sesame Street characters, which had been sold by EM.TV to Sesame Workshop.[4]

Fourteen years after initial negotiations began, Disney purchased the Muppet intellectual properties from the Jim Henson Company for $75 million on February 17, 2004. The acquisition consisted of the rights and trademarks to the Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House characters, as well as to the Muppet film and television library.[1][2][3][21] Exceptions included the Sesame Streetcharacters—as they were previously sold to Sesame Workshop[22]—the Fraggle Rockcharacters, which were retained by Henson, and the distribution rights to The Muppets Take Manhattan, Muppets from Space, and Kermit's Swamp Years, which remained with Sony Pictures Entertainment.[21] As part of the acquisition, Disney formed the Muppets Studio, a wholly owned subsidiary responsible for managing the characters and franchise. As a result, the term "Muppet" became a legal trademark owned by Disney, although Sesame Workshop continues to apply the term to their characters, and archival footage of Kermit, under an exclusive license from Disney.

The Jim Henson Company retains the rights to a number of productions featuring the Disney-owned Muppet characters, including Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, The Christmas Toy, Sesame Street: 20 and Still Counting, Henson's Place, Billy Bunny's Animal Songs, the original Dog City special, and Donna's Day. While some of these specials have since been released uncut, current releases of Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas and The Christmas Toy have removed the appearances by Kermit the Frog.

Disney began gradually reintroducing the franchise to the mainstream in 2008.[4][5] As a method of regaining a wider audience, Disney began to produce and air their own comedy shorts on YouTube. After the "Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody" was posted on the Muppet Studios' YouTube channel, it ultimately gained 50 million views and took home two Webby Awards. Videos are being posted on the site regularly.[23] That same year, the Muppets starred in a web series with Cat Cora called The Muppets Kitchen With Cat Cora, where cooking demonstrations are shown.[24] A television special, A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa, premiered on NBC on December 17, 2008. It was released on DVD on September 29, 2009.[25] In 2010, Disney used the Muppets to promote their volunteerism program at the company's theme parks.That same year, a Halloween special featuring the Muppets was expected to air on ABC in October 2010 but was shelved.[26]

Disney Theatrical Productions revealed in 2013 that a live show based on the Muppets was in active development and that a 15-minute show had been conducted by Thomas Schumacher to see how the technical components would work out.[34]Muppets Moments, a series of interstitial shorts, premiered on Disney Junior on April 3, 2015. The short-form series features conversations between the Muppets and young children.[35]

After the release of Muppets Most Wanted, Disney was interested in expanding the Muppets' presence across various media platforms, particularly in television.[36] Discussions for a new primetime series began internally within the Muppets Studio.[27] By April 2015, Bill Prady was commissioned to write a script for a pilot with the working title, Muppets 2015.[37] In May 2015, ABC announced that it had greenlit a new primetime television series titled, The Muppets, co-created by Prady and Bob Kushell, and directed by Randall Einhorn.[38][39] The series premiered on September 22, 2015, in the United States, and ended on March 1, 2016.[8][40]

The puppet characters of other Henson productions, such as Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, are not considered Muppets,[41] as they were made by Jim Henson's Creature Shop, rather than by Henson's Muppet Workshop. The puppet casts of Puppet Up! and Tinseltown are also not Muppets as they were made by the Jim Henson Company after the sale of the Muppets to Disney in 2004. The Star Wars character, Yoda, was performed and voiced by Frank Oz, one of Henson's regular performers, and is often genericized as a Muppet in media and reference works; he is not, however, and Henson's organization was not involved in the character's conception.[42][43]

At the start of the Muppets formation, Jim and Jane Henson were the group's only performers. In 1961, Jane retired to focus on raising their children. Seeking additional performers, Jim came into contact with Frank Oz that same year. Although interested, Oz declined participation due to his young age and commitment to high school, and instead suggested Jerry Juhl, a fellow puppeteer who worked alongside Oz at the Vagabond Puppet Theater in Oakland, California. Upon graduating, Oz subsequently joined in August 1963. When The Muppet Show began, the main cast of performers grew to include Henson, Oz, Dave Goelz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, and Steve Whitmire, while Juhl became head writer for the series. From The Muppet Show onwards, Kevin Clash, Kathryn Mullen, Louise Gold, Karen Prell, Caroll Spinney, and Brian Henson performed several minor characters and often assisted the main performers with puppeteering. Nearly all of the aforementioned puppeteers performed characters across a variety of media, including The Muppet Show,Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, and other Henson-related projects.

Jim Henson, Hunt, and Nelson continued performing until their deaths in 1990, 1992, and 2012, respectively. Whitmire and Bill Barretta, who became one of the group's main performers in the 1990s, adopted Henson's characters. Hunt's characters remained without a stable performer throughout the 1990s and 2000s, until David Rudman began performing such characters in the late 2000s. Oz continued performing until his retirement from puppeteering in 2000; Eric Jacobson took over his characters two years after.[27] At Nelson's behest, Matt Vogel gradually assumed performing duties for his characters beginning in 2008. The Muppets are currently performed by a cast of seven principal puppeteers: Whitmire, Jacobson, Goelz, Barretta, Rudman, Vogel, and Peter Linz.[27]

Rowlf the Dog's design features the distinct wide mouth and glove-like hands found in typical Muppets.

Perhaps the defining trait of a muppet versus generic puppet is the attempt at genuine personality through a creative style.[44] But there are a few archetypes of common muppet architecture.[45]

Since Disney's acquisition of the Muppets, newer models of the characters are produced and maintained by Puppet Heap.[46]

Generically, a muppet is most often a cloth tube intended to conceal an arm, leading to a head composed of two parts, intended to move the mouth in a natural fashion, unlike many previous puppets, where for example the head may have moved instead of the jaw, or the jaw hinge may be visible. These can be called "mouth puppets" because of the moving mouth, and "half-bodied puppets" for the way you (generally) only see the top half, no legs. A common facial design for a Muppet is a character with a very large mouth and big protruding eyes. Most muppets of this type also have arms that can be moved independently, either because they are connected tubes for additional human arms ("glove arm puppets" like Cookie Monster or Rowlf Dog), or are thin arms controlled by obscured sticks, like a reverse marionette ("rod-arm puppets", like Kermit the Frog or Scooter).

The puppets are often molded or carved out of various types of foam, and then covered with fleece, fur, or other felt-like material. Muppets may represent humans, anthropomorphic animals, realistic animals, robots, anthropomorphic objects, extraterrestrial creatures, mythical beings or other unidentified, newly imagined creatures, monsters, or abstract characters.

Muppets are distinguished from ventriloquist "dummies"/"puppets", which are typically animated only in the head and face, in that their arms or other features are also mobile and expressive. Muppets are typically made of softer materials. They are also presented as being independent of the puppeteer, who is usually not visible—hidden behind a set or outside of the camera frame. Using the camera frame as the "stage" was an innovation of the Muppets. Previously on television, there would typically be a stage hiding the performers, as if in a live presentation. Sometimes they are seen full-bodied. This is done by using invisible strings to move the characters' bodies and mouths and then adding the voices later.[47]

One significant departure from this general theme is the "full body muppet", a unique innovation where a man is dressed in a full muppet costume, but instead of a simple, lifeless head (like a Disneyworld character) there is generally a complex set of tools allowing one hand to control the mouth and eyes of the head, while one of the character's visible "arms" is empty, but tied to the other arm or additional controls to allow some small, natural movement. The first version of this innovation was Delbert, the La Choy Dragon, but Big Bird could reasonably be described as an archetypal example, along with Bear (in the Big Blue House).[48][unreliable source?]

Muppets tend to develop, as writer Michael Davis put it, "organically", meaning that the puppeteers take time, often up to a year, slowly developing their characters and voices. Muppets are also, as Davis said, "test-driven, passed around from one Henson troupe member to another in the hope of finding the perfect human-Muppet match".[50] When interacting with Muppets, children tended to act as though the Muppets were living creatures, even when they could see the puppeteers.[51]

The puppeteer, often dubbed as the "Muppet performer", holds the Muppet above his head or in front of his body, with one hand operating the head and mouth and the other manipulating the hands and arms, either with two separate control rods or by "wearing" the hands like gloves. One consequence of this design is that most Muppets are left-handed as the puppeteer uses his right hand to operate the head while operating the arm rod with his left hand. There are many other common designs and means of operation. In advanced Muppets, several puppeteers may control a single character; the performer who controls the mouth usually provides the voice for the character. As technology has evolved, the Jim Henson team and other puppeteers have developed an enormous variety of means to operate Muppets for film and television, including the use of suspended rigs, internal motors, remote radio control, and computer enhanced and superimposed images. Creative use of a mix of technologies has allowed for scenes in which Muppets appear to be riding a bicycle, rowing a boat, and even dancing on-stage with no puppeteer in sight.

The Stage 1 Company store, a Muppet-themed gift shop at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

The Muppets appear at the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, having first made appearances at Walt Disney World in 1990. Their first featured attraction, Here Comes the Muppets, was a live stage show that opened shortly after Jim Henson's death and ran at Disney's Hollywood Studios (known then as Disney-MGM Studios) for a year.[52]Muppet*Vision 3D, a 4D film attraction that uses audio-animatronic Muppets and 4D effects, then opened at Disney's Hollywood Studios on May 16, 1991. The attraction is notable for being the final Muppets project to be produced by Jim Henson. The attraction exists in Muppets Courtyard, a section of the park themed to the Muppets, which also features themed restaurants, gift shops, and restrooms. Muppet*Vision 3D had a subsequent opening at Disney California Adventure, on February 8, 2001, and remained there until its closure in 2014.

In 2010, the Muppets were the face of the "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" charity campaign. Guests could register for a select service activity on the Disney website, and in return for completing the service work, participants could print a voucher for a free one-day admission ticket to Disneyland or Walt Disney World Resort. The Muppets appeared in television and print ads for the campaign and were featured prominently on the campaign's website.[58]

Since the late 1970s, numerous Muppet-related comic books have been released over the years. The first comic strips based on the Muppets appeared on September 21, 1981, in over 500 daily newspapers, just months after The Muppet Show ended its five-year run. The Muppets Comic Strip was printed daily from 1981 to 1986. By the end of its initial run, the comic strip was seen in over 660 newspapers worldwide. Special strips were also created in color, exclusively for issues of Muppet Magazine.

The only film in the franchise to see a comic book adaptation was The Muppets Take Manhattan. The comic book series was adapted by Marvel Comics in 1984, as the 68-page story in Marvel Super Special No. 32, August. The adaptation was later re-printed into three limited series issues, released under Marvel's Star Comics imprint (November 1984 – January 1985).

In the wake of the success of the Muppet Babies television show, Star Comics began releasing the Muppet Babies comic book title on a bi-monthly basis. These were original stories, not adaptations of the show's episodes.

In the final Disney Adventures issue, with a cover date of November 2007, a one-page story single strip focusing on Fozzie Bear, Smedley, Statler, and Waldorf (with a cameo by Scooter) was released. Roger Langridge wrote and drew the comics intending it to be more long running.

On July 25, 2007, the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta announced the opening of a new Jim Henson Wing, which will house anywhere from 500 to 700 retired Muppets. The new wing will also include films, sketches, and other materials from the Jim Henson Company archives. The wing was originally slated to open in 2012 but has been delayed by a lack of funding and rescheduled for a possible 2014 or 2015 debut.[74][75]

^Jones, Brian Jay (2013). "Sam and Friends". Jim Henson: The Biography. New York: Ballantine Books. pp. 41–42. ISBN978-0-345-52611-3. It was really just a term we made up. For a long time I would tell people it was a combination of marionettes and puppets but, basically, it was really just a word that we coined. We have done very few things connected with marionettes.